@yourautisticlife i have never understood what is meant by "theory of mind" and suspect that the term is used to mean too many things. in particular, i don't see how the eyes test represents an analogous task to simpler theory of mind tests like the Sally-Anne task for small children. they seem like entirely different concepts to me.
it's not just me, this paper also argues that "theory of mind" is not well defined and that most tests for it are testing different things. https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691619896607 seems prudent to first figure out what we actually mean by "theory of mind" before we go around claiming some people don't have it.
@miaoue@yourautisticlife@actuallyautistic
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to me, it's a concept that has been through the Allistic filter and in use means the opposite of what it clearly ought to mean.
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A theory of mind ought to be a theory of many minds, of the differences between minds, like the way Temple Grandin can empathize with cows, a theory of mind ought to be something like an adaptor plate, a tool for navigating different sorts of minds - a tool every animal owner in the world uses all day, BTW.
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But no, the Allistic doctors decide it's the opposite, only one specific sort of a mind is a mind. This way, it's not a theory at all. 🤮
@miaoue@yourautisticlife@actuallyautistic
Theory of mind is basically self acknowledgement and awareness that you are an embodied organism that exists within an ecosystem of diversity with other organisms and understand your purpose as human. To me it’s knowing what you are in the principal sense in science, that you acknowledge and accept responsibility of your being, via agency.
Which perhaps is similar to early metacognition dating back awhile ago.
I could be entirely off too!☺️